Using Multimedia To Get Folks On Board

[Zachary The First]

So, in another thread, Clash (I think) mentioned showing an episode of A&E's Horatio Hornblower series to his group before they started playing the Napoleonic naval RPG In Harm's Way, and it helped get everyone understand what the genre they were going to be playing in was all about.  So, my question is, have you ever used a movie, a show, a book excerpt, an audio recording, etc., to help folks get into "the zone", so to speak?

[flyingmice]

Yep! That was me. I ran the first A&E Hornblower TV movie before the midshipmen level game I ran, and I ran Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World before the Lieutenants level game which is still going on. Both succeeded perfectly. The players were immediately able to grasp the small scale of the midshipmen game as well as the much higher level of play of the lieutenants game. It's the only time I've ever done that, because of the niche nature of the setting. Everyone knows what a fantasy game or SF game will be like, in broad terms. Not Napoleonic Naval!

I also play 19th century chamber music and sea chanteys softly in the background as we play. It enhances their reception and attention, unlike rock, which tends to distract us, no matter how softly played.

I may play an episode of Ruoni Kenshin or Full Metal Alchemist before our upcoming Steampunk Musha game.

-mice

[Knightsky]

Before running my 'Xavier's Students' game using the V&V rules, I had my players all watch the first X-Men film to help get into the mood.

[joewolz]

I use multimedia when I can.  I usually develop soundtracks for all my games (to play in the background), and I also assign movies to watch or short stories to read, if the players are willing.

I also am doing a wiki for my current campaign and game world.  I had a tiddly wiki up and it still is available on my website, but I installed a full on mediawiki so my players can log into and edit things.

By the way, does anyone know how to work a mediawiki?  I bit off a lot more than I can chew...